Increasing your Share in your Home
Shares in your home are sold subject to a leasehold contract, usually 125 years. In most cases your lease allows you to buy further shares in your property which can eventually progress to 100% ownership. The leasehold contract will cease to exist when you own your home outright. Increasing equity in this way is called staircasing.

You will never be required to increase the share in your home, it is entirely your choice.

Shared ownership leases usually allow you to staircase in multiples of 10% after 12 months of ownership but you will need to check the details for your own property as some schemes have specific conditions imposed by the local authority.

If your lease allows staircasing and you would like to increase your equity and you can:

• write to your Housing Officer at your local area office
• contact the Housing Services Centre by email hsc@raglan.org or call 0845 070 7772 for more general information
• contact the Shared Ownership Helpline by email sales@raglan.org or call 01202 296991

The Price of Extra Shares
The value of your property will be assessed by an independent valuer so we can calculate how much extra shares will cost.

Costs associated with Staircasing
You will have to pay for:

• the valuation
• Raglan's administration fee
• solicitors fees

The Effect on Rent Payments
Your rent will decrease as you increase your share. Eg: if you decide to increase the share in your home from 50% to 80%, your rent will be recalculated based on the 20% of the value of your home that Raglan still owns.